Friday, January 19, 2018

Turkish security forces launched a military offensive into Afrin on Friday following a withdrawal of Russian forces to sweep out the PKK-affiliated Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its armed People's Protection Units (YPG).

Russian forces' withdrawal came shortly after Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli said that Russia informed Turkey about its plans to pull out its military assets from the Syrian district.

The minister said talks between Turkish and Russian officials regarding the operation will continue. Shortly after Canikli's remarks, sources in Afrin told Anadolu Agency that the Russian military had started to withdraw its forces deployed in the northeastern Kafr Jana region of Afrin. Some Russian security assets have reached Nubl and Zahra on the outskirts of Afrin, which are currently held by the Syrian regime.

The Russians pullback forces and are allowing the Turks to conduct the assault? Don't care if you love or hate the Ruskies but this is fucking brilliant.

You want to talk about conservation of forces?

Limiting casualties to your own side?

Preserving combat power?

The additional benefit? With all these discussions you can bet that once they're cleared out they'll withdraw. The Turks don't want to be caught between the US and Russia so they've obviously chosen (in this instance at least) to ride with Russia.

That means they have a buffer against US "interference" in their operation.